India’s Shame – The Starving Children

In a country that has seen enormous economic growth in the last decade, has nuclear weapons and a space programme, its hard to imagine that 41.6% of its people are reliant on foreign aid to keep them alive.

India´s Economy – Set for 8.5% Growth Per Year

Since 2000, the economic wealth of India has grown to the extent that it is now the ninth largest economy in the world, and fourth largest in terms of purchasing power, and yet many of its children are starving to death.

India first tested a nuclear bomb in 1974 and now has an arsenal of such weapons. Year on year the government is spending billions of dollars to develop, aircraft, aircraft carriers and submarines as a means to deliver them, and yet many of its children are dying of hunger.

Space Programme – More Important Than Children´s Lives?

The country also has an expensive space programme which has put up several satellites, the first being Aryabhata, launched in 1975 aboard a Russian rocket, and yet the children of India are starving to death.

With hardship so widespread in India, some 41.6% of the population are living below the poverty line according to 2005 figures, it is hard to imagine that the country can afford the extravagance of nuclear weapons and a space programme, but such is the mind of governments!

Looking For Scraps

Ever since India joined the free-market economies of the world, it has seen a massive increase in the middle class sector, due for the most part to the country embracing modern technology and providing services to other countries. The destitute have however been left far behind in this growth, for India has more starving people than the whole of Africa. Recent estimates put the number of people below the poverty line in Africa at 410 million, while in India the figure is 645 million. The latest population estimates indicate India has in excess of 1.2 billion inhabitants which makes it the second largest country after China in terms of inhabitants.

Ever since 1947 when India was given independence by the British Parliament, our government, among others, has been pumping aid money into the country to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds every year. The present government under David Cameron has elected to continue paying £280 million a year until 2015 into the coffers of the Indian government in New Delhi. India has one of the largest food aid programmes in the world.

Ultimately Responsible?

What is now under discussion, is what happens to that money?

This is where the ancient beast corruption raises its head once again. Not surprisingly, it is not only the low level workers that are stealing aid intended for the poorest families, but many government officials who are supposed to oversee distribution.

Desperate For Food

Rations Packs intended for the most needy children are being systematically hi-jacked on route and sold on the black market as, believe it or not, animal feed. In the meantime, the poor, for whom this aid means life or death, are dying from malnutrition to the tune of two million a year. Some 61 million children (48%) in India suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.

A Mother and Dying Child

I really have no idea if this is the Indian governments macabre idea of population control, or if it is just plain greed and corruption, but I hope it’s the latter. Whichever way you look at it, many people are getting obscenely rich over the corpses of the country’s young. Also, it seems to me we are doing nothing more than footing the bill for their nuclear and space programmes, for the one thing that seems to be missing is a sense of priorities.

4 Responses to “India’s Shame – The Starving Children”

This week (june 2012) I stayed overnight in the beautiful IG Airport in Delhi. Headlines of the news were shown on a big flatscreen. It headed e.g:

“Shame of India: food meant for starving children was used for chickens. Result: 23.500 children died; 85.000 still starving”.

No further details or timeframe, but at least it was made public. Shockingly, beside me, no-one was even looking.
“Surely” I thought, “this must be worldnews from now on, for in the civil war in Nepal lasting ten years or so, 16.000 people died and everyone in the world knows this”.
More shocking: I did not discover any mention of it in the recent news and more shocking: your figures are much higher!

Hi Adriaan,
Nice of you to drop by. I have to say I am not surprised no-one was interested in the story in Delhi, ‘those that have are seldom interested in those that have not’ these days. Its the same everywhere in the world, and its shameful. Humanity has become so self-centred, that the general concensus of opinion is, if it doesn’t affect me and mine, I don’t care! It’s all very sad.
Roy.

Hi Kelis,
Very True. I just wonder why so many governments are still prepared to pump money into the country just to make some robbing s.o.b. rich. I guess the answer to that is the Indian government doesn’t care a damn about the starving and the aid that is given is the only hope they have of survival.
Best Regards,
Roy